


weapon of choice

by tielan



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-25
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-07-26 14:59:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7578553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/pseuds/tielan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She’s sharp and cold as the rocks of the Austrian Alps, a knife of a woman from the precise click of her bootheels across the institution floor to the icy condemnation of her gaze as it rests on Steve.</p>
            </blockquote>





	weapon of choice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kiss_me_cassie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiss_me_cassie/gifts).



> A small treat.

She’s sharp and cold as the rocks of the Austrian Alps, a knife of a woman from the precise click of her bootheels across the institution floor to the icy condemnation of her gaze as it rests on Steve.

He finds himself both resenting her disdain and rising to the challenge in her gaze.

“I feel like I’ve personally offended you, Agent Hill.”

The twist of her mouth is a sharp sickle of amusement and contempt both as she regards him. “You think a lot of yourself, don’t you, Rogers?”

The accusation stings, bitter as his sense of failure.

 

Here, there are no linoleum floors for Hill’s bootheels to clatter across. Nevertheless, Steve’s unexpected ally against Fury strides through the underbrush with sleek and deadly confidence, heading for the river and the tripartite spires of the Triskelion.

“The Sub was one of Fury’s exits from the Triskelion if evac ever became necessary,” she says as they reach the tiny pier. “We’ll use it to get back in.”

She steps out onto the extra-thick steel girder punching out into the current of the Potomac, graceful as a dancer, precise as a targeted shot.

Only really, Steve thinks, she’s the gun.

 

Sitting numbly in the back of the Quinjet; Steve hears Maria speaking to Tony, but the words that he hears aren’t about the Avengers in the news.

_Would you really?_

Maria’s question is soft, gentle beneath the other voices drowning out his thoughts.

_God’s righteous soldier, imagining you could live without a war._

_Isn't that_ _**why** _ _we fight? So we can end the fight and go home?_

_The war’s over now, Steve; we can go home._

Such a soft question, yet with the razor edge of a scalpel, slicing through his illusions, cutting him to the bone.

_Would you really?_

 

As Maria negotiates the terms under which Bucky will be kept in Wakanda with one of T’Challa’s security people, Steve regrets pushing her before.

“ _Sanctuary or prison?_ ”

 _Brows lifted._ “ _Why can’t it be both?_ ”

_Because it hit too close to what the Accords wanted the Avengers to be: weapons without their own will, under lock and key until they were brought out for use._

_“Trust me,” Maria murmured as Okoye of Wakanda walked into the meeting._

He does. She’s one of the few Steve would trust to just point him in the right direction and let him loose.

 

He had to work for Maria’s respect, even after New York – perhaps _especially_ after New York – yet she came for him, and in the confrontation, backed him rather than Fury. She gave him the intel he needed to execute his duties, accepted his friendship, questioned his choices.

Her loyalties are flexible and not absolute, and if that stings, well, it is what it is.

Watching her navigate the Accords and two sets of Avengers with the grace and skill of a bird on the wing, Steve thinks he understands why.

Yes, he’s a weapon. But so is she.

 


End file.
